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ISOTOPES IN BONES AND TEETH

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Isotopes in Palaeoenvironmental Research

Part of the book series: Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research ((DPER,volume 10))

Abstract

The hardness and chemical stability of bone, especially in fossil form, explains its early importance for revealing the biological history of our planet. Potentially, bone supplies a very rich array of evidence, as it is organized into a structural hierarchy, in which each level corresponds to functions that are determined by the local environment. Thus, evidence at an isotope level can be directly connected with the existence of that particular animal species at that time and place, so increasing the scope and precision of palaeoenvironmental interpretation. Most interpretations based on bone have been (palaeo)biological; that is, to do with species and their ecological preferences and behaviour, to do with demographics, and to do with health and pathological issues such as nutritional, growth and disease status. These issues can have a strong or a weak dependence on the physical environment; the relationship may be quite straightforward in some cases, or very complex in others. A very extensive literature on this has grown up over the years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QJ, UK

    Joshua E.M. HEDGES

  2. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    RHIANNON E. STEVENS

  3. NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK

    RHIANNON E. STEVENS

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA

    PAUL L. KOCH

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  1. Joshua E.M. HEDGES
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  2. RHIANNON E. STEVENS
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  3. PAUL L. KOCH
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey,Keyworth, Nottingham, UK

    Melanie J. Leng

  2. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Melanie J. Leng

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HEDGES, J.E., STEVENS, R.E., KOCH, P.L. (2006). ISOTOPES IN BONES AND TEETH. In: Leng, M.J. (eds) Isotopes in Palaeoenvironmental Research. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2504-1_03

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